Building Trust As A Treatment Equipment Vendor

I recently read an article about building trust in the workplace. It focused on a couple of recent studies that found that one in three employees don’t trust their employer and that only 49% of employees trust their boss/team.  It made me think about trust between vendors and end users in the water and wastewater industry. How much trust is there in our industry? How do you prove your company’s trustworthiness?

We certainly require a lot of trust in the water market. The reluctance of an industry to embrace change for fear of setting off a public health crisis is at an all-time high following the Flint, MI crisis where the decision to change the community’s  source water now has 9 water quality professionals under indictment. Even before Flint, there was and always has been real reluctance on the part of regulators and utilities alike to embrace change. It’s easier to trust what you have in place with a known history of complying with maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) than to “roll the dice” on a new technology promising to save energy, labor or both.  

And as a water or wastewater treatment equipment supplier, it’s often hard to affect trust as so many of us have such an indirect relationship with our end users. I was in a meeting not so long ago with a treatment equipment executive who admitted that he had very little data on where his products were installed because it was all sold through distribution.

In another meeting between a vendor and a rep firm, trust was a huge determinant in whether or not the rep worked hard to push the company’s product. There was a far higher propensity to move product if the rep felt appreciated, knew that the company would support him if anything went wrong with the installation and paid him on time. That sounds like trust to me.

When we talk about the value of brand publishing, we’re talking about building trust. Trust doesn’t appear overnight. Trust is built up over time. It’s hard to win and easy to lose. But here are some thoughts on how you can build trust through your content marketing efforts:

1. Be Honest

Your readers will forgive you for the hyperbole when creating literature and videos to support a new product. They understand that you need to be a little flamboyant to capture the audience’s attention. Certain political figures running for high-office understand this too. But beyond the new product datasheet or display ad prose, make sure you are also creating a body of content that is honest. Case studies are a great example of honest content because they provide the reader with a place, a problem, some alternatives and the ultimate solution.

2. Ask For Feedback

Making your Company approachable can be intimidating. It’s not easy to hear what reps and end users really feel about your products and services. It’s also difficult for your customers to share real feedback too. Asking the question “How’s it working for you?” will often get a satisfactory response. But asking the more difficult question “What could we do to make this work better for you?” is far more revealing and will pull your customer into a deeper discussion of your product. Including your contact information or ending your content with questions requesting feedback are great ways to show your audience that you are interested in listening to them. Trust is reciprocal and showing your customers that you respect their opinion will often increase their trust in you.

3. Give Credit

I know it’s hard not to blow your own trumpet when creating marketing content. With the legal restrictions put on you by your customer in terms of what you can and cannot say about their previously failing treatment process, you’re often stretching as much as possible to get the story of your latest installation simply published.

Try making your customer the hero of the story however and lessen your role. In the process, you’ll likely have better luck getting the story past the municipality’s legal team and you’ll win an advocate in the plant manager and staff that you focus the article around.

Your readers will trust the narrative more when its central protagonist is one of them far more than your equipment or services. Maybe even enough to pick up the phone and call the hero of your story. And what better validation of your product is there than a third-party testimonial?